Advice on Inviting My Father-in-Law to Visit ??

[steviej]

My mother and father in law have never visited us in US. My father-in-law wants to come this fall for his first visit. Questions:

1. Does anyone have a list or template of the invitation letter that would address all the items that the Embassy wants to see covered?

2. He does not own his flat or any realestate. I don't know what they did, but the flat they live in is technically owned by my wife and her younger sister. (Russians seem to do strange things in realestate, IMO.) With out such as asset, is this a big drawback?

3. My wife was wondering if we could wire a bunch of money into his account in Russia temporarily, get the bank statements required, then wire the money back when done. Has anyone done that? Could it work or do they want to see a history of deposits and withdrawals? (for example, if you are buying realestate, you have to prove that your down payment wasn't just recently deposited into your accounts by some relative or friend. )

Thanks.